The Chronicles of Philanthropy recently published a study looking at the generosity of taxpayers towards charity using Internal Revenue Service data. The results are interesting: All but one of the top-20 states voted for Mitt Romney in the 2012 election. On average, citizens of the states that went to Romney gave on average 3.66 percent of their gross adjusted incomes to charity while those who voted for Obama gave on average2.56 percent. Could this be related to religion? Utah, the most generous state, hosts the highest concentration of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) followers in the country. They are expected to contribute...

Restaurant Opportunities Centers United, an advocacy group defending restaurant workers, recently published a report that paints a rather dark portrait of the restaurant industry. According to a survey among some 700 restaurant workers in 39 states, female workers are victim or sexual harassment at a much higher rate than their male coworkers – 52 percent versus 44 percent notice weekly incidents making them uncomfortable. It’s even worse when the workers earn a “tipping wage”, i.e. only have a basis wage of $2.13 per hour; the survey shows that workers are twice as likely to be victims of sexual harassment. These...

Newspeak liberals at Salon tirelessly use their brains (?) in order to suggest new improvements to our lives. Their last one is quite bold: Rewrite the Constitution. While there are some good ideas, most of them would simply do away with the rule of law and bring about the world of Atlas Shrugged. First, they propose term limits for people in Congress and the Supreme Court and shut the revolving doors during five years. The first idea has some merit; there is a constitutional amendment limit presidential terms to two. It might stop/decrease power-hungry politicians from building their legacy with stolen...

For the nth time, fast-food workers across the country were striking because they were unhappy about their salary. They claim that they are entitled to $15/hour so they can make a decent living. Now, there's nothing wrong with striking. As Frédéric Bastiat puts it, keeping employees from quitting their job/ask for a better pay is akin to slavery. However, when the state doesn't force employers not to hire scabs, the strikers shouldn't be surprised to see people agreeing with the present conditions taking over their jobs. In addition, the whole concept of "living wage" is an empty one. Indeed,...

If crazyness is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results, then the European Central Bank (ECB) is completely nuts. Its president, Mario Draghi, announced that the interest rate would be lowered to 0.05 percent, that the ECB would buy more mortgages and securities and that it would charge banks even more for "excess" reserves. That way, he hopes to stimulate EU growth, which hasn't really recovered from the 2007 recession. To quote a famous add in Quebec: if it existed, we'd have it. In this case here, the politic of cheap credit/easy money has been tried time...